Tuesday Morning Doldurms

I have a case of the “Tuesday Morning Doldurms”. It’s the beginning of the workweek with the long week ahead before the weekend. Ugh. It used to be that I would hate Tuesdays. Work stinks.

Then I lost my job that I had previously held for 12+ years. I had been exceptional and among the top of the company. I had no transferable job skills in 2004. I was starting over from scratch now 20 years’ older than after high school. However, I now faced a serious challenge that did not face me in 1985. The beginning of a serious economic crash resulting in very few available jobs — even for experienced workers.

I went back to school in 2004 to earn a Certificate as an Administrative Assistant. They were actively laying off and the few jobs that remained were going to people with 5 – 10 years’ of experience. I began temping. I learned the office environment, but I was unable to build enough experience to get a job — seeing as the jobs were on the way out. I now suffered from the no-steady-paycheck blues — way worse than the Tuesday-morning doldrums. Managing bills on an inconsistent / unstable income is a logistical nightmare.

I knew I had to go back to school again and gain more of an education. Although I hadn’t programmed a computer since 1992, I realized that I could do this. I re-entered school in September, 2007 — the worst of our economic crash. I graduated in June, 2009 with almost no entry-level jobs available.

I spent the last year gaining financial experience, picking up a smattering of technical tutoring work, and volunteering. Now, I’ve gained enough experience to be employable AND the economy is beginning to recover. I am now employed in my field within a year of graduation. That’s a time-frame that is normal in an otherwise good economy. I’m working as an independent contractor fresh out of school. That’s exceptional in any economy. I am back to the top of my game.

Thanks to hard work, perseverance, and raw talent, my personal economy took much longer to crash than that of the US and it is pulling out of the crash much faster than that of the US. One of my supervisors once said to me that I would always do well — “cream rises to the top”. There have been times over the last few years that I’ve had my doubts. Although the last six years have been challenging, they have also given me perspective. The Tuesday Morning Doldrums just don’t seem to be as horrible now.